Yes, it goes with breast feeding into toddler-hood. 

My son and daughter slept with me after he was born until he was over 2 1/2, and she was 5, but in my case I had split with my ex-husband when I was 3 months pregnant so the older one especially needed the reassurance and I found I got more sleep breastfeeding in bed.

Don't think I'd have done it if I had a husband in the bed too. :)

It was my son who decided he wanted his own bed, so my daugther agreed that she wanted to go back into her own bedroom.

I will put my hand up and say I have a collie, raised outside, with a fab temperment (so far so good anyway :D) He has come from sheepdog parents, and they lived in a cleared out area of the barn (most were going on to work sheep) BUT he was bred by someone who understood the importance of socialising and took the time to do it. When I collected him at 7 weeks he was a healthy, confident little thing who fitted right into living inside and wasnt phased by anything....at 6 months he is a well adjusted, friendly and enthusiastic boy...everything I wanted in a pup! :D My lab was raised indoors (but unfortunately by someone who bred for money and had no idea) is worried by the hoover, hairdryer etc while the pup doesnt take any notice as they were taken inside in small groups by the breeder and socialised properly. Imho, it is the time and effort put into the puppies (plus, of course, the temp of parents) that makes a pup what it is - not where they were living.

I've just brought Tara (Aussie) indoors - she has been lying outside quite happily and it's 0c - but as it is starting to rain, I don't want a wet dog :) I'm sure she would sleep quite happily outdoors if she could - she is often outside when it is snowing/frosty. She chooses to sleep in our garden room at night as it is cooler than the rest of the house, so a kennel would suit her, I'm sure :) :)

Well, all of us I think should get some kennels or dog crates for our pets as these helps minimize our daily task . Cleaning their waste, your tile etc everyday is a big risk. While in kennel, you just take a hose from the faucet and pour their poof easily.

What do you think guys?

Jebby

No, because dogs are domestic pets that live in a home environment, not outdoor livestock to live in farm conditions.

I think if that is your attitude to keeping dogs, Jebby, you might be better off just having stuffed toy ones! Of course having dogs around does increase the amount of housework, but I have dogs because I love them and want them around  :)

All of my dogs have always lived entirely in the house, but I've never had more than 4 at once and currently only have two. If I breed dogs in the future, though, and have more than about 4, then I will kennel them quite happily (after I build the kennels).

I have a puppy now whom I bought from a famous breeding/show kennel and will never have been in a house till she came home with me. She is the most fantastically confident, outgoing, well-adjusted puppy I've ever known.

My other current dog was completely home-reared by a nervy, jumpy, crazy but basically nice woman and is a nervy, jumpy, crazy (though sweet and lovely and now quite well-trained) dog.

My stepfather's working sheepdogs used to live under a sheet of corrugated iron at the end of a shed. They had very few dealings with any people except their master. To his way of thinking, it was beneath the dignity of a working dog that they should be required to wag their tails at non-working humans. (I'm not saying this is right, just describing what I don't think was that unusual a way of thinking). But when they did meet other people, they were very well behaved, and all his dogs always seemed extremely happy, never exhibited any kind of distress behaviour that I can think of. And his bond  with them was extraordinary.

In other words, I agree with those who say that what counts is both the (bred) nature and the quality of the nurture of the dogs, rather than any measure so crude as where they sleep.

Also that surely the point of kennelling is that it usually occurs when you have a lot of dogs. So it's not usually a choice between "home and socialised" or "kennelled and alienated". Rather it's "house with humans" vs "kennel with dogs". In which case the former is not necessarily so obviously better than the latter.

First post, btw. Been lurking a while and enjoying the forum, so thanks and hi.

Phew, what a long thread,but interesting reading. No idea what the OP was about as I couldn't access the first page, but generally the thread seems to be about temperament issues (or not) between indoor and outdoor raised puppies. I'm currently on my fourth GR and she had a mixture on in and out in her first eight weeks of life. The puppies were whelmed and spent their first five weeks indoors experiencing all that a busy household has to offer along with a noise cd being played most of the time. When I first went to see them, they had recently been spending the days outside in a totally enclosed enclosure within a few feet of the house and next to an outdoor kennel where a working spaniel spent his time (out of choice). As it was such a lovely summer and when the puppies were 6 to 7 weeks, they began spending the nights out as well and the spaniel was the night watchman. The day before each owner came to pick up their puppy, the pup was bought back into the house to spend a day and a night indoors to get reacquainted with being inside. When we went to get her she was happily threading her way through the older dogs legs and keeping away from the older ones that didn't appreciate young pups anymore, and eventually fell asleep under a side table. She has fitted in with us beautifully and is a happy, very socialable dog with people and dogs. I've kept an eye on her body language with other dogs and she seems to have the right approach and is fast making friends with some dogs that have known issues. I went to a great deal of trouble to find a breeder with good lines and a sound temperament, but also I think the temperament of the breeders needs to be taken into account! They were lovely, very friendly people who adored their dogs and did the best they could for them and have produced some well balanced friendly dogs. All credit to them.

>So it's not usually a choice between "home and socialised" or "kennelled and alienated". Rather it's "house with humans" vs "kennel with dogs".

There is also the very common method these days, where we view our dogs much more as 'Family' where if larger numbers are kept dogs are rotated, so they spend time in the house and kennelling.

Still think this is preferable (where possible due to neighbours and noise issues) than many dogs kept indoors crated.

I would count mine as living in the house (have 6) as some of them sleep in the kennels at night, purely comfort/space reasons.  Living in a suburban house I could no way have them outside  unsupervised in the day.

>There is also the very common method these days, where we view our dogs much more as 'Family' where if larger numbers are kept dogs are rotated, so they spend time in the house and kennelling.

Some lab breeder friends rotate their dogs from the outside kennels to into the house. The older ones are in the house most of the time, but the youngsters spend a few weeks in then back out again. They don't have so many dogs now, but a bit of rotation still goes on.

My own dog was kept in an outbuilding of sorts ( hard to explain, it was connected to the house, by way of the utility room.. so two doors away from the kitchen.) as a pup. When I picked him up at 9 weeks he was still in there with other puppies but had no adult dogs apart from his Mum. As a young pup he was obsessed with dogs because I don't think he'd mixed with any other than pups of his own age and his Mum, and playing with other dogs in the same way he would his littermates was obviously not acceptable.

I didn't think of this aspect until much later in his life when he lost his 'puppy license' and still tried to play like a puppy for the most part. After a number of incidents with other dogs telling him off good and proper, he is now slightly on the nervous side around strange dogs and I do wonder how much of it was down to the way he was kenneled.

That being said, I have met tons of pups that have been home reared but still don't come across any other dogs and I assume they would have similar attitudes to other dogs at a young age.

After many months on a longline teaching him a solid re-call, he is now happy to leave other dogs alone but he will still say 'hi' if he thinks he can get away with it.

Overall, I think it isn't as black and white as kennel = bad, home = good. Puppy buyers should look at the bigger picture of what socialisation the breeder does and how many dogs are in there etc etc. Frankly, a badly socialised pup is going to be badly socialised in early because of the breeder. It is down to the breeder and not down to the where the breeder chooses to keep their dogs. I would happily take on a kenneled pup/dog as long as other socialisation had been done and they weren't just confined to a kennel/shed for the first 8 weeks of their lives.